Star-studded cast of speakers for GLD Conference
The 30th Birthday Conference of the Green Liberal Democrats is becoming a must-not-miss event for anyone in the Liberal Democrats who has even a smattering of Green motivation in their political souls. It has the same feel about it as the inaugural conference back in 1988 and the Party now is much bigger in numbers than back in the day. So do not miss taking your place at the conference.
As you will have seen from an earlier posting, Simon Hughes will be the opening keynote speaker as he was in 1998, so there is a delightful symmetry there. But one of our newest MPs, Wera Hobhouse, will be gracing the conference with her presence this year. Wera is definitely an environmental enthusiast and not only acted as a speaker at the GLD lunchtime fringe meeting in Southport, but also came along to the evening fringe just to enjoy the companionship of like-minded party members, lighting the candles on our 30th birthday cake.
The accompanying picture shows Wera speaking at the lunchtime fringe meeting which was attended by around 100 party members. Her key interests include campaigning on ways of combatting air pollution, about which she will speak at the conference in Nottingham on 19th May. She is also expecting to introduce Party Leader Vince Cable in the afternoon plenary session, so has a central role in boosting Green Liberal influence within the Parliamentary Party. We understand the conference is in Vince`s diary for May, his office is yet to confirm his visit, so watch this space for future announcements!
Sir Ed Davey MP has also indicated he hopes to be speaking in Nottingham, highlighting the specifically GREEN influence Liberal Democrats had during the coalition years, reprising the speech he made at the Southport Rally last weekend, but going into more detail as well as looking ahead to the Green role Liberal Democrats can play in the current parliament in the face of Tory backsliding. We need to watch very carefully to prevent the Tories cutting away all the environmental protection European Union initiatives brought to this country over the past 43 years.
We have a lot of conference strands covering different Green campaigns and former MEP Phil Bennion is coming to talk about Green issues relating to our land-use policy in one of the strands. As a land-owner and farmer Phil is actively devoted to good environmental practices which he will share with Nottingham delegates.
Do not forget that there is less than a fortnight to go for the early-bird prices for registering at the conference. Make sure you register before the end of March to save yourself a few pounds! Every little helps! Register here>>> https://goo.gl/qqfofg
Finally (for the moment, that is!) our spokesperson in the House of Lords on Climate Change, Baroness Lynne Featherstone, will be chairing a couple of strand sessions relating to Climate Change and battling with transport issues and air pollution. This is going to be a great conference for Green Liberal Democrats and could well be a game-changer in terms of how our environmental policy areas are to be seen and used by the Liberal Democrats in future elections. Come along to Nottingham and let YOUR voice be heard.